Autodesk Developer Network

Questions and Answers

1. What documentation and training are available for developers?

Documentation and Visual LISP® samples are included on the AutoCAD® 2012 product media. Training and consulting, as well as access to the developer knowledge base (for sample code and answers to frequently asked development questions), are available from the Autodesk Developer Network (ADN).

2. Do I need to include the LISP runtime engine with my Visual LISP application?

The runtime engine is available with every AutoCAD license. For AutoCAD, compiled Visual LISP applications do not need to include the LISP runtime engine and are therefore much smaller.

3. Will my AutoLISP routines work in AutoCAD 2009, 2010, 2011, and 2012?

Yes, your AutoLISP routines will work, assuming your application does not use new functionality that is not available in the older releases.

4. Does LISP still work in AutoCAD at the command line, in menus, or in the acad.mnl file?

Yes, using the command line to evaluate LISP code directly continues to work as it has in the past. Using Visual LISP is also transparent to the menu subsystem in the AutoCAD software application. These areas of AutoLISP customization (AutoLISP at the command line and in menu files and menu-LISP files) and application integration for AutoCAD continue to work unchanged. We do recommend customers pursue changing from using menu files to the CUI (Custom User Interface) files introduced in AutoCAD 2006.

5. Can I use ActiveX in Visual LISP?

Yes. The Visual LISP programming language supports access to Microsoft® ActiveX® objects. Please refer to the documentation for the vlax functions in the AutoLISP Reference Guide (part of the AutoCAD product documentation) for more information.

6. Do I have to use the Visual LISP integrated development environment (IDE)?

No. You can edit LISP code using any editor you choose. The Visual LISP IDE is one option available to you in AutoCAD for writing and debugging LISP customization. The code editor you use for developing Visual LISP applications is your choice. However, some of the debugging and editing features integrated with the Visual LISP IDE may not be available in other code editors.